Improvement in potato-diggers



J. H. GEDNEY.

. POTATO-BIGGER.

No. 174,359. Patented March 7,1876.

Wifn was 0.9

N. PETERS, FHOTOUTHDGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, D C.

heavy soil.

* UNITED STATES PATENT omen JONATHAN H. GEDNEYY, or RYE, NEW YORK."

I P OVEMENT IN POTATO DlGGERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. l4,359, dated March7,1876; application filed 7 November 27, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JONATHAN H. GEDNEY, of the town of Eye, inthe'county of Westchester, State of New York, have invented an ImprovedPlow'for Digging Potatoes, which I call My Potato-Digger, of which thefollowing is a specification, reference, being had or dug up, and, withthe soil, passed over the mold-boards to the rear onto the Wire fingersor separators, and thence scrabbled to the top, separated, and leftlying on the surface.

In the drawings,,Fig. l, A represents the beam, usually made of wood oriron, supported on one end of the sheath or standard D, the opposite endof said standard being fastened to, or, usually, cast with, a doublemold-board,

one on each side of the standard, and having a straight fiat piece, P,in Fig. l, projecting out to the rear of the plow, to which is fastenedan upright piece, M, which piece, passing through, and fastened to, oneend of the beam A, serves to strengthen-the beam and piece M and renderthem more firm. B B are the handles or stilts, held in place byfastening the' lower ends into the side-boards (more particularlydescribed hereafter) G G, and held together at the center and top bymeans of the round 0, which'passes through the upright M, and isfastened to the handles at each end also by another round, I), similarlyfastened, as shown. F F are two mold-boards, preferably cast with, orfastened on each side of, the standard D, having plane surfaces, andgiven sucha pitch or angle as to give each a rise or angle not exceedingin a working model three or three and a half or four inches. If set at agreater pitch the soil is apt to fall back, instead of passing over andoff the mold-boards, especially in 0 O are side boards or guards, ofnecessary width, one end of which is fastened on and to the side of themold-board by means of the bolts n a, and the other to the lower end ofthe handle or stilt B by means of the bolts a a, said bolts havingsunken heads. These sides or guards O 0 act as a guard to prevent thesoil and potatoes from falling off of the side of or from themold-boards, so that both pass over onto the wire fingers, hereinafterdescribed. 8 s are two iron braces, one, as shown in Figs. :4 and '3, 8,extending from the side-board (J, where the side-board is fastened orjoined to the handle B to the center piece P, and the other, 8,extending from the junction .of the side-board O and handle B to thepiece P, thus serving the purpose of strengthening the handles andside-boards at their junction and the center piece P. L L" .L" L arewire fingers, or, as I call them, separators, made in a working model ofwire about five-eighths of an inch thick, arranged as shown in thedrawing, where I have shown but four, two on each side, lest it confusethe view 5 but more can be used if necessary. These separators are woundloosely around the iron bars or rods H H, one end of which rods are setin the sheath or standard, one on each side, and the other ends rest in,or are set in, the hearings or pieces II. These pieces or bearings I Imay be cast separate, and boltedon the under side of the mold-boards, asshown, or cast as one piece with the mold-boards. One end of thesefingers L, as It, extends under and rests against the under or lowerside of the mold-boards, the other end, 6, projecting out in theopposite direction for any desired distance, yet not far enough to be inthe Way of the person holding the plow, and bent up at any requiredangle or bend, as shown in Fig. 1. These fingers should be wound veryloosely on the rods H H, so as to allow great motion or play upand'down. The end 70, being under and resting against the under side ofthe mold-boards when the end I is depressed by the weight of anysubstance passing from the mold-board onto the fingers, prevents toogreat depression of the end Z, and as the plow,

is dragged along over the ground the soil and tubers, passing over themold-boards onto these fingers or separators, which are kept in motionby the movement of the plow, are shaken apart, and the potatoes arescrabbled to thetop and left lying on the surface. K is a double share,

e mess with point, .fastened to .the front end of the double mold-boardsby sunken bolts, :in the usual way of fastening shares to mold-boards.(Not shown in the drawing.)

I have represented in the drawings a cntt'er,-' N, placed on the beam atanangle of forty-five degrees, projecting =-d'own over the share, forthe purpose ofcutting down the vines or weeds; but a four-tongued forkmay be usedvinstead, to remove the vines, 1850., for both maybedispensed with, when desired.

In the operation of my machine, it will be seen that as the sharepassesbelowt'h'e tubers and the soil, both will be thrown onto the *mold'boards, and thence pushed off onto the fingers. L, the guard or sidehoards C (3' preventing hothfrom fzillingoff at the sides, and the saidfingers being; loosely wound around the bars I H'H, all the motionoflthe plow iscolnmuni cated to them, giving them I a lateral motio n--maybe veryslight-and a motion npanddown, 1 thusseparatin'g the soil andpotatoes, leaving;

the potatoes scrabbled' t o-the tQp, andallowingallaweeds, &'c.,:t0 passoft.

Instead of the moving fingers, stationary teeth may be cast withthedouble mold-boards,

and the motion of the plow shake 011" the soil *in'dependeii tly-pivotedwire fingers or separa- "tors I, constructed, combined, and operatingsubstantially as shown and described Witness my hand this 23d day ofNovember, 1875.

JONATHAN H. GEDNEY.

Witnesses:

B. s. CLARK, H. INFEIJ).

